IF my reader will turn to the sixth chapter of the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, he will find a description of what the prophet saw " in the year that king Uzziah died"—a sight which evoked the cry from his inmost soul, " Woe is me I for I am cut of [margin]; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips." And then the reason which produced this cry is given, “For mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts" (v. 5). The burning holiness of the Lord, expressed by the seraphim (or “burners"), disclosed the deep corruption of his heart to this prophet of the Lord, now measured by a standard which had never heretofore reached his soul.
This chapter therefore calls upon us to turn back to examine that scripture which tells of the course and death of the leprous king to which it refers.
In 2 Chron. 26 we read his history, and how his heart was "lifted up" to his destruction; while in Isa. 6 we see what brought home to the prophet the corruptions of his own heart, measured and disclosed by the glory of " the Lord, sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up." But when we turn to the New Testament (John 12), where this same scene is recalled and interpreted for us, we are told that “These things said Esaias, when he saw his glory, and spake of him." It was the glory of Jesus, the Son of God and Son of Man, whose voice speaks to our inmost souls, in the accents of His grace, in these words:—" I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me" (John 12:3232And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. (John 12:32)).
We have thus, in these connected passages of Scripture, three times mentioned a "lifting up.”
In 2 Chron. 26, a sinner's heart, in spiritual pride, "lifted up" to his destruction; in Isa. 6, the glory of the Lord of hosts, high and "lifted up," in convicting rays; and in John 12, the Son of Man in grace for sinners,—"lifted up," between earth and heaven, on the cross of a malefactor,—the Savior of the lost, the Daysman between God and sinners, —to draw all men unto Him; thus disclosing the heart of God.
One more "lifting up" we find in Ezek. 28, where, in a dark and mysterious way, the fall of the mighty enemy of our souls—"the strong man,” Satan—is described. Filled with pride and rebellion against God, the revolt of this being great and mighty, the "anointed cherub," "full of wisdom,” perfect in beauty," whose" heart was lifted up because of thy beauty” is implied. Yet, in that moment of pride and rebellion is he cast down from his eminence, and fated to be cast by his conqueror out of the heavenlies to the earth (Rev. 12.); and from the earth to be " cast into the bottomless pit" (Rev. 20); and from that, when “loosed for a little season" out of prison, " cast into the lake of fire," "to be tormented day and night forever and ever," in the" place prepared for the devil and his angels.”
We come, therefore, to the moment in the history of God's ways, when everything must from that time be measured not only by the law of God, but by His own glory. Its burning rays have now shone forth as revealed, though not yet openly manifested, and every soul must be able to meet that glory, the glory of Him who is a "consuming fire," or be lost forever in everlasting destruction from His presence and the glory of His power, Think of this, my reader. You may be virtuous, amiable, upright, honest, sincere,— for I do not speak now of the openly evil, " whose end is destruction" and "outer darkness" their portion, as driven away from His presence forever; but to those who, like the prophet of the Lord, served Him faithfully; who denounced the evil they saw around; reasoned and pleaded with sinners, told out faithfully God's ways and the privileges of His people, warned in earnest language, of judgment to come; yet who never had till this moment measured their own hearts, and seen their deep corruption, under the blaze of that glorious light at which the seraphim veiled their faces with their wings, unable with open face to behold its burning rays!
Isaiah was one like this. Living in the midst of a people, just like thousands at the present hour, who were nominally the Lord's, under the religious privileges of that day, he sang the song of the vineyard of the Lord of hosts (ch. 5:1), and told forth the loving culture and tender care of His hand, to produce fruit meet for Him from their hearts. His vineyard then was “the house of Israel," "the men of Judah his pleasant plant.”
“He looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry" (5:7). Judgment must come therefore upon those who were then, as now, named by the name of the Lord, and who brought forth evil and rebellion and wickedness, where fruit had been sought, and where the culture and privileges of His hand had been bestowed.
Isaiah, therefore, must now pronounce the “woes" upon such. "Woe" to the covetous (ver. 8); “woe" to the drunkard (ver. 11); "woe" to scoffers (ver. 18, 19); "woe" to the liars (ver. 20); "woe" to the self-sufficient (ver. 21); "woe" to the corrupt (ver. 23). Six times over the burning lips and pen of the prophet pronounce "woes" upon those who profaned Jehovah's name. "The anger of the Lord” is kindled, he says; "darkness and sorrow" are at the door; " hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure, and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it. And the mean man shall be brought down, and the mighty man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled: but the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God, that is holy, shall be sanctified in righteousness" (ver. 14-16).
At last the leprous king expires,—a rotten loathsome leper, in a several house. Outwardly, like you perhaps, my reader, he had sought the Lord; he reigned well, and his nation was blest; “his name spread far abroad" too. He made great munitions, and was marvelously helped, till he was strong; and as long as he sought the Lord he prospered. But the moment came when the deep evil of the heart was discovered, which no outward blessing from God, or professed seeking after Him, had disclosed. “His heart was lifted up to his destruction." He dared to enter into the presence of God like one who had a right to be there. And God smote him with leprosy. It rose up in his forehead, plainly and openly, so that all could behold.
The leprosy of sin and spiritual pride came to the surface, disclosing the corrupt stream which poured through his veins. The springs of his heart were reached, and he was a leper till the day of his death, "cut off from the house of the Lord," for “the Lord had smitten him." Separate from all he rots and dies, and is buried.
What a picture of a sinner's condition, course, and end! And then, when Isaiah's mind was thinking, it may be, of the fate of the sinner, portrayed in the history of this man whose heart had been lifted up to his destruction, the glory of the Lord of hosts was lifted up before him. What a lesson then reaches his heart! He who had denounced others, and pronounced six woes against them, finds the burning rays of Jehovah's glory piercing to the quick of his soul, and the woes that were pronounced against others were concentrated upon himself; the seventh woe finds that he is the one whose leprosy of heart is laid bare. The burners (seraphim) had cried, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts!" with not one word of denunciation against him; but the light of the glory of God pierced with its convicting rays into the quick of his soul, and "Woe is me, for I am cut off," just as a leper, is his cry. Convicted in the depth of his being, he finds there "is no difference" between himself and those whom he had denounced. Yet the burning rays do not consume him; the day had not come when they will do their work; the hand of Him whose glory thus had shone forth, was stretched out still in mercy. The anger of the Lord was "kindled," but did not yet consume. The hand that was stretched forth to smite, was stretched forth in mercy still (Isa. 5:2525Therefore is the anger of the Lord kindled against his people, and he hath stretched forth his hand against them, and hath smitten them: and the hills did tremble, and their carcases were torn in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. (Isaiah 5:25)).
Over seven hundred years of long-suffering pass away, and the glory was laid by; the Lord of hosts appears on earth, when the ax was about to strike the root of the trees in judgment. He veils His glory, but now reveals it that of an only-begotten Son (John 1:1414And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)). Three times over do we find Him telling of His being "lifted up" in the Gospel of John. Sinners were to be called, because none were righteous. "I came not to call the righteous,”
He says, for "there is none righteous, no, not one.”
Sinners required a Savior, and Jesus was there.
Born a Savior, He lived a Savior amongst men.
But none were reached. A Holy Man, and fallen men, had no link between them except the fact of humanity. He must therefore die, or dwell alone. But what would a Savior be without His saved? What a Redeemer, without His redeemed? What a Sanctifier, without His sanctified?
Hence Jesus at once announces the cross. 1. It was a necessity for man that the Son of Man must be "lifted up" (John 3:14). 2. It was the wickedness of man's heart that would be disclosed in this lifting up,—" When YE have lifted up the Son of Man, then shall ye know that I am he" (John 8). But then it would be too late. And 3. The corn of wheat must die, or abide alone (John 12), “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me;" and thus the heart of God would be revealed. If He walked on earth, He would draw the Jew; but, lifted up between earth and heaven, the Daysman between a leprous world of sinners and a thrice holy God, meeting the sinner's need and His glory, bearing the divine judgment in all its burning holiness, and bearing our sins—(reader, were yours there, or are they on your own soul? faith alone can reply!)-in His own body as His own, He dies!
Reader, the Daysman has laid His hand upon that throne, and met its glory in judgment. Has He laid His hand on you? Refuse Him thus,—for "His hand is stretched out still" in mercy,—and hear what follows for you, as certainly, by-and-by, as is His mercy now. He “lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by him that liveth forever and ever,... that time should be no longer; but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel,... the mystery of God should be finished. The second woe is past; and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly" (Rev. 10 and 11.).
Satan's woe had fallen on the apostates of the Jews; man's woe on the empires of Europe; and now God's final woe falls on all who are out of Christ, and everlasting destruction from His presence and the glory of His power are the end of that scene!
Look once more on the last reference to Isa. 6 in the New Testament (Acts 28), " Well spake the Holy Ghost by Esaias the prophet,... the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.”
Reader, there is such a thing as the heart being hardened, the eye closed, the ear dull of hearing.
Is it so with you? Or can you say, " ' Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us (can you say, unto me?) by his Spirit.'
I possess them and rejoice in them in Christ my Lord! And now with open face, beholding His glory, I am being changed into His image, from glory to glory, even by the Spirit of the Lord. I rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”
F. G. P.